PSEi up on last-minute bargain-hunting

LAST- MINUTE bargain- hunting buoyed the stock market — which continues to trade sideways amid lack of strong catalysts — to the 7,900 level on Thursday.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) inched up by 0.22 percent or 17.22 points to end at 7,950.98 while the wider All Shares barometer climbed by 0.04 percent or 1.96 points to finish at 4,780.16.

“The sideways trading ended on a positive note as bargain hunters swooped in to lift the market up by 17.22 points (0.22 percent) at 7,950.98,” Philstocks Financial Inc. said in a market comment.

Brokerage firm 2TradeAsia agreed, noting that more foreign investors flocked into the local market.

Net foreign buying reached P495 million on Thursday, but “volume remains thin,” it added.

For his part, AAA Equities head of research Christopher Mangun said the PSEi was “inching toward the 8,000 level and a lack of selling pressure tomorrow may put it over that level.”

“Despite this, we believe investors will remain wary and wait till we see a massive move higher,” he added.

Wall Street was up. The Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq surged by 0.17 percent, 0.28 percent and 0.19 percent, respectively.

Asian markets were mixed. Hong Kong was up 0.76 percent, Seoul added 0.24 percent, Jakarta climbed by 1.06 percent, Singapore gained 0.87 percent and Vietnam increased by 0.59 percent.

Shanghai dropped by 0.02 percent and Thailand fell by 0.30 percent.

In Manila, all sectors surged except for industrial and services, which dipped by 0.93 percent and 0.001 percent, respectively.

Over 660.11 million shares were traded for P5.19 billion.

Losers outpaced winners, 104-80, while 51 issues were unchanged.